Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to apparatus and methods for monitoring the movement of a structural member under a transient load. More specifically, the invention pertains to a non-contacting monitor for bridges, other civil structures, and models thereof.
Description of Related Art
There exists an overwhelming need for a cost efficient method of monitoring and assessing the health of our nation's infrastructure. Large-scale adoption of technology solutions in the infrastructure monitoring market would reduce the number of tragic and expensive failures, increase safety and public confidence in infrastructure, provide quantitative data for proper appropriation of funding for repairs, and streamline the inspection process facilitating state DOT compliance with federal bridge inspection regulations.
The current bridge health monitoring process is labor intensive, expensive, and largely empirical with little data available about real time bridge performance. All information that is currently compiled to determine a bridge rating is based on calculations derived from visual inspection, tools utilized to determine the quality of the materials in the bridge, and dye to look for cracks. None of these tools effectively rates the bridge on actual current performance under load because the only tools available for such measurements are expensive and not feasible for widespread use. Current infrastructure assessment techniques do not provide a safe environment for inspectors, as they require the use of bucket trucks, rappelling, and other risky means of getting the inspector close to the infrastructure to perform a thorough visual inspection. The inspector is also subject to danger from vehicular traffic around the inspection site.
There is a clear need for a low cost, simple to use, inspection technology to provide infrastructure inspection technicians with information that will solve several key problems with current inspection practices including: reducing the amount of time and money spent on inspections by providing data from areas that are difficult and time consuming to access, and quantifying inspections, which have traditionally been somewhat subjective visual inspections.